Posted September 19, 2008

Make way for the nine-ton magnet

3T arrives at Temple

For the claustrophobic, it gives the space they want. For the overweight, it gives the space they need. For doctors, it gives a clearer image and more accurate view of the body’s inner workings. And for the entire Temple campus, it opens the doors to even greater levels of advanced research.

It is the Verio 3 Tesla (3T) MRI scanner and the latest model has just arrived at Temple thanks to collaboration between the university, the School of Medicine and Temple University Health System. This particular model is the first of its kind installed in the state — but that’s not what makes it so remarkable. The nine-ton machine has twice the magnetic field as previous scanners on campus, especially helpful for neurological examinations.

“The 3T lets us look at the activity in the brain (physiology) in real time and utilize

Photo by Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University

On Sept. 18, Radiology Department Chair Charles Jungreis, Temple University Health System President and CEO Joseph W. "Chip" Marshall III, Medical School Dean John M. Daly, and College of Liberal Arts Dean Teresa Soufas were on hand for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, which announced the arrival of the 3T.

that information almost immediately, as opposed to the old scanners, which would take hours or days to process and even then weren’t as reliable,” says Charles Jungreis, M.D., professor and chair of Radiology at the School of Medicine and Hospital.

Moving research forward with the 3T Current and future projects include: Localize language areas in the brain Develop new imaging techniques for detecting brain tumors Study brain activation in restrained and unrestrained eaters Figure out the brain's role in regards to semantic processing, social processing and memory In-depth study of healthy spinal nerves as it relates to kids with spinal cord injuries	The strength of the 3T’s magnet improves resolution. If you’re watching a football game on a television with old-fashioned rabbit ear antennae, you might be able make out the picture, but poor reception can create a lot of interference that appears as “snow.” If you watch that same game via a satellite dish with high-definition clarity, however, you can tell whether or not a player’s foot hit the end line. You can see every blade of grass. That’s the kind of state-of-the-art definition that the 3T provides. The sharper, functional imaging helps define areas of abnormalities, such as a tumor versus normal tissue, without the need for deep-tissue biopsies. In turn, doctors can better treat their patients.

The 3T’s bore, or tunnel, is shorter in length, but wider in diameter, allowing more room for bariatric patients who physically could not fit into the old bores and a more comfortable experience for those uneasy in confined spaces. The 3T will also speed up routine MRI exams, allowing greater efficiency for the 9500 MRI exams performed annually by the Department of Radiology. This next-generation technology also opens the doors for research across the entire campus that would not be possible otherwise. “If you aspire to be first-rate in research, a 3T is an absolute necessity,” says Willis Overton, Ph.D., former chair of psychology and current Thaddeus Lincoln Bolton Professor of Psychology. “Any federal agency requires that you work with this technology and if we didn’t have one, we would not be able to acquire funding.”	Photo by Joseph V. Labolito/Temple University Feroze Mohamed, associate professor of radiology and associate director of the Functional Brain Imaging Laboratory, and Gerry Stefanatos, director of the Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory and chair of the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, are leading research to localize language areas in the brain. Here, the subject names an image (lion), letting the doctors know where the brain areas for word retrieval are located.

Overton adds that the 3T attracts not only funding, but faculty, allowing his department to hire several faculty members in the cognitive neuroscience field, hires that would have been impossible without the 3T. Jungreis agrees, noting how the cooperation that began some six years ago between departments on campus, from radiology to neurosurgery, psychiatry to engineering, has paid off. Having the 3Tesla MRI allows all of Temple to boast that it can, and will, compete. “The people that you have at a university are there because they enjoy the new technology, the new sciences and new knowledge,” says Jungreis. “With this 3T technology, we can explore and learn. It’s very exciting.”

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